The Food Factory.

The Rotary Club was early in the field in rendering generous assistance to the Plunket work and the establishment of its present fine home. But

(Photo. courtesy “Evening Post.”) The Traby King Karitane Hospital on Melrose Heights, Wellington, New Zealand.

page 22 page 23 the food-factory which is an essential part of the scheme, was begun with the doctor's own money. This attained such dimensions that he could no longer finance it himself. A number of Wellington citizens who appreciated the value of the great work, became guarantors. However, the factory enterprise developed so successfully that they were never called upon to make up a deficit.

The factory makes three tons of emulsion a week and one ton of sugar of milk a day. The emulsion is nutritive; the sugar furnishes energy. Large quantities of this prepared food are sent to England and elsewhere. Sir Truby's system of infant-feeding has been adopted in England, Germany, Canada, South Africa, and Australia; and it is extending.

Distinctive names have been coined for the infant food; they preserve the story of its origin. The emulsion is called “Kariol” and the sugar of milk is “Karilac.”

The example of New Zealand, the noble system of infant salvation that owes its foundation to the doctor and his wife, is a light to the civilised world. Sir Truby himself went to England—his services were lent to the cause there by the New Zealand Government—to organise the Plunket system, and the benefits of his campaign of instruction were soon apparent.

Honours came to this most retiring of men. He was made C.M.G., and in 1930 he was knighted. He was left a poor man by his constant expenditure on the cause nearest to his heart. That was the great joy of his life, to spend all he had in energy and in every other way on the building up of a happy, healthy young generation. His reward is in the visible fruits of his long and tireless toil for the cause, and in the knowledge that he is honoured and revered as the friend and saviour of the babies. Tens of thousands of young New Zealanders are, or have been Plunket babies. That is the wonderful fruit of the tiny beginning on the shore of Karitane.